Eating Disorder Recovery Resources | Palm Beach Gardens, FL

Literature on Eating Disorders and Recovery

Surviving an Eating Disorder has become a classic since it was first published in 1988. It was one of the first books to offer effective support and solutions for family, friends, and all others who are the "silent sufferers" of eating disorders. This updated and revised edition provides the latest information on how parents, spouses, friends, and professionals can thoughtfully determine the right course of action in their individual situations.

With its combination of information, insight, case examples, and practical strategies, Surviving an Eating Disorder opens the way to new growth and helpful solutions in your relationship with your loved one.

"Johanna S. Kandel, founder and executive director of The Alliance for Eating Disorders Awareness, struggled with her eating disorder for ten years before finally getting help. Now fully recovered, Kandel knows firsthand how difficult the healing process can be. Through her work with The Alliance—leading support groups, speaking nationwide and collaborating with professionals in the field—she's developed a set of practical tools to address the everyday challenges of recovery."

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"Wasted" by Marya Hornbacher

"Why would a talented young woman enter into a torrid affair with hunger, drugs, sex, and death? Through five lengthy hospital stays, endless therapy, and the loss of family, friends, jobs, and all sense of what it means to be "normal," Marya Hornbacher lovingly embraced her anorexia and bulimia -- until a particularly horrifying bout with the disease in college put the romance of wasting away to rest forever. A vivid, honest, and emotionally wrenching memoir, Wasted is the story of one woman's travels to reality's darker side -- and her decision to find her way back on her own terms."

"Unbearable Lightness: A Story of Loss and Gain" by Portia de Rossi

"In this groundbreaking memoir, Portia de Rossi reveals the pain and illness that haunted her for decades, from the time she was a twelve-year-old girl working as a model in Australia, through her early rise to fame as a cast member of the hit television show Ally McBeal. All the while terrified that the truth of her sexuality would be exposed in the tabloids, Portia alternately starved herself and binged, putting her life in danger and concealing from herself and everyone around her the seriousness of her illness."

"The Parent's Guide to Eating Disorders shows that effective solutions begin at home and cost little more than a healthy investment of time, effort, and love. Based on exciting new research, it differs from similar books in several key ways. Instead of concentrating on the grim, expensive hospital stays of patients with severe disorders, the authors focus on the family, teaching parents how to examine and understand their family’s approach to food and body-image issues and its effect their child’s behavior. Parents learn to identify an eating disorder early, to establish healthy attitudes toward food at a young age, and to intervene in a nonthreatening, nonjudgmental way. The authors concentrate on teens, the age group most often affected by eating disorders, as well as younger children. Individual chapters cover boys at risk, relapse training, dealing with friends, school, and summer camp, and much more. The book includes an appendix and sections on further reading, organizations and websites, outpatient and hospital programs, and references."

"Have you tried fad diet after fad diet, only to gain weight back? Maybe you’ve tried the protein diet only to move on to vegetables only? Raw almonds and coconut water every forty-five minutes instead of big meals? Or perhaps you’ve tried counting calories, but the numbers on the scale still don’t add up. If you are ready to throw in your hat and give up on dieting for good, take heart. You can enjoy food again—you just need to pay attention to your body’s natural hunger cues. Based on the authors’ best-selling book, Intuitive Eating, this workbook can show you how."

"The Intuitive Eating Workbook offers a new way of looking at food and mealtime by showing you how to recognize your body’s natural hunger signals. Structured around the ten principles of intuitive eating, the mindful approach in this workbook encourages you to abandon unhealthy weight control behaviors, develop positive body image, and—most importantly—stop feeling distressed around food! You were born with all the wisdom you need for eating intuitively. This book will help you reconnect with that wisdom and ultimately change your life—one meal at a time."

"At the root of bulimia is a need to feel in control. While purging is a strategy for controlling weight, bingeing is an attempt to calm depression, stress, shame, and even boredom. The Dialectical Behavior Therapy Skills Workbook for Bulimia offers new and healthy ways to overcome the distressing feelings and negative body-image beliefs that keep you trapped in this cycle.

In this powerful program used by therapists, you'll learn four key skill sets-mindfulness, distress tolerance, emotion regulation, and interpersonal effectiveness-and begin using them right away to manage bulimic urges. The book includes worksheets and exercises designed to help you take charge of your emotions and end your dependence on bulimia. You'll also learn how to stay motivated and committed to ending bulimia instead of reverting to old behaviors. Used together, the skills presented in this workbook will help you begin to cope with uncomfortable feelings in healthy ways, empower you to feel good about nourishing your body, and finally gain true control over your life."

"Jenni had been in an abusive relationship with Ed for far too long. He controlled Jenni’s life, distorted her self-image, and tried to physically harm her throughout their long affair. Then, in therapy, Jenni learned to treat her eating disorder as a relationship, not a condition. By thinking of her eating disorder as a unique personality separate from her own, Jenni was able to break up with Ed once and for all.

Inspiring, compassionate, and filled with practical exercises to help you break up with your own personal E.D., Life Without Ed provides hope to the millions of people plagued by eating disorders. Beginning with Jenni’s “divorce” from Ed, this supportive, lifesaving book combines a patient’s insights and experiences with a therapist’s prescriptions for success to help you live a healthier, happier life without Ed.

This 10th anniversary edition features a new afterword as well as sections devoted to family, friends, and supporters; how treatment professionals can use the book with their patients; and men with eating disorders."

"We've all been there-angry with ourselves for overeating, for our lack of willpower, for failing at yet another diet that was supposed to be the last one. But the problem is not you, it's that dieting, with its emphasis on rules and regulations, has stopped you from listening to your body.

Written by two prominent nutritionists, Intuitive Eating focuses on nurturing your body rather than starving it, encourages natural weight loss, and helps you find the weight you were meant to be.

With much more compassionate, thoughtful advice on satisfying, healthy living, this newly revised edition also includes a chapter on how the Intuitive Eating philosophy can be a safe and effective model on the path to recovery from an eating disorder."

"Health at Every Size" by Linda Bacon

"Tune in to your body’s expert guidance. Find the joy in movement. Eat what you want, when you want, choosing pleasurable foods that help you to feel good. You too can feel great in your body right now—and Health at Every Size will show you how.

Health at Every Size has been scientifically proven to boost health and self-esteem. The program was evaluated in a government-funded academic study, its data published in well-respected scientific journals.

Updated with the latest scientific research and even more powerful messages, Health at Every Size is not a diet book, and after reading it, you will be convinced the best way to win the war against fat is to give up the fight."

"Goodbye ED, Hello Me" by Jenni Schaefer

"Jenni Schaefer and Ed (eating disorder) are no longer on speaking terms, not even in her most difficult moments. In her bestseller, Life Without Ed, Jenni learned to treat her eating disorder as a relationship, not a condition-enabling her to break up with Ed once and for all.

In Goodbye Ed, Hello Me Jenni shows you that being fully recovered is not just about breaking free from destructive behaviors with food and having a healthy relationship with your body; it also means finding joy and peace in your life."

"Gaining" by Aimee Liu

"Aimee Liu, who wrote Solitaire, the first-ever memoir of anorexia, in 1979, returns to the subject nearly three decades later and shares her story and those of the many women in her age group of life beyond this life-altering ailment. She has extensively researched the origins and effects of both anorexia and bulimia, and dispels many commonly held myths about these diseases with the persuasive conclusion that anorexia is a result of personality."

"Fragile" by Nicki Grahame

"Say the name Nikki Grahame and most people will remember the bubby, highly strung and hugely entertaining Big Brother 7 contestant, famous for her diary room outbursts. Since leaving the Big Brother house, she had forged a successful career for herself in presenting and writing. Yet Nikki isn't just another reality television contestant and her life story is not like any other you will ever read. From the age of eight until she was nineteen, Nikki battled anorexia nervosa—but few cases have been quite as extreme as hers. What she has been through while suffering from this illness might surprise you—it will definitely shock you. At just seven years old, Nikki began feeling that she was overweight. A remark about her being fat from a fellow pupil at a gymnastics class along with insecurity brought about by her parents' separation and he beloved grandfather's death, were the catalysts for Nikki's long-term eating disorder. Aged just eight and weighing just under three stone, she was diagnosed as anorexic. For the next eight years, Nikki was in and out of institutions—seven in total—during which time she attempted suicide twice and had to be sedated up to four times a day so that she could be force-fed."

"Family Eating Disorders Manual"

"The Family Eating Disorder (FED) Manual is written by a team of professionals, with input from family members, offering a wide range of eating disorder information in a user friendly and interactive. It balances biological with psychological and social issues and discusses the newest neurobiological research in a conversational and practical manner so that families can better understand what is happening in the mind and lives of their loved ones. One chapter provides help with communication while another is a "Tool Box". Each chapter has questions at the end for notes and summary points. This book is a comprehensive guide on how to help manage emotions, eating and schedules during the recovery process of an eating disorder. "The FED Manual "nicely balances both biological issues and psychosocial issues....it is clearly written, holds one's attention and avoids redundancy. It includes loads of state-of-the-art information in an accessible, easy to understand style." James E. Mitchell, MD, Christopherson Professor and Chair, Department of Clinical Neuroscience, University of North Dakota School of Medicine and Health Sciences; President and Scientific Director, Neuropsychiatric Research Institute "

"For anyone who has suffered, their family and friends, and other helping professionals, this book should be by your side. With great compassion and clinical expertise, Costin and Grabb walk readers through the ins and outs of the recovery process, describing what therapy entails, clarifying the common associated emotions such as fear, guilt, and shame, and, most of all, providing motivation to seek help if you have been discouraged, resistant, or afraid. The authors bring self-disclosure to a level not yet seen in an eating disorder book and offer hope to readers that full recovery is possible."

"Your Dieting Daughter" by Carolyn Costin

"This book focuses on the essentials of nutrition, offering clear guidelines for healthy eating and dispelling many of the myths promoted by the diet industry. A concise and informative review of the most popular diet programs helps set the record straight on what's behind all of those promotional campaigns to which adolescent (and younger) girls are regularly exposed. The goal here is to help parents understand the kinds of pressure their daughters are under and to provide them with the necessary knowledge to work with their daughters - rather than against them - in forming a strong, positive, and clear sense of self."

"Eating in The Light of The Moon" by Anita Johnston, Ph. D

"By weaving practical insights and exercises through a rich tapestry of multicultural myths, ancient legends, and folktales, Anita Johnston helps the millions of women preoccupied with their weight discover and address the issues behind their negative attitudes toward food."

"Brave Girl Eating" by Harriet Brown

"In Brave Girl Eating, the chronicle of a family’s struggle with anorexia nervosa, journalist, professor, and author Harriet Brown recounts in mesmerizing and horrifying detail her daughter Kitty’s journey from near-starvation to renewed health. Brave Girl Eating is an intimate, shocking, compelling, and ultimately uplifting look at the ravages of a mental illness that affects more than 18 million Americans."

"I struggled through an eating disorder for most of my life it was the worst time of my life and I must say even though I faced hard times in [Center For Discovery] it saved my life. I can finally say that I can eat more normally than ever all thanks to them."

Why is treatment for an eating disorder important?

Eating disorders can lead to life-threating medical and psychological consequences, and they often co-exist with other conditions, such as depression or anxiety. If an individual is struggling with an eating disorder, it is difficult for them to recover without professional help. Only about one third of people with an eating disorder ever receive treatment, and 87% of adolescents with one go untreated. Experts have found that early intervention can significantly improve an individual’s chance of recovery. With help from a team of specialists, an individual with an eating disorder can be successfully treated with long-term recovery.

Center For Discovery Palm Beach Gardens, FL specializes in treating eating disorders and the co-occurring conditions that are accompanied with them, with unique treatment programs for every individual to get them on their way to eating disorder recovery.